March Madness is truly one of the most exciting moments in the sporting calendar, and if I may suggest a somewhat controversial point, it's the closest the Americans have to the FA Cup in terms of upsets and turning up on the day. It's brilliantly simple - win and you're in, lose and you're out.
It's a shame that the Butler Bulldogs won't be in the tournament - unless the NCAA selection committee goes utterly hatstand...

Damn i hate sport sometimes painful loss for Syracuse against a Cinncinati team that just out played them. Syracuse is limping into the big dance. Seemed too easy to predict that the orange were going to struggle to win away from the dome.

Can someone explain to me how the NCAA tournment works, I thought there was a bracket of 32 teams, but I'm sure I heard them say 60 odd the other day.

If a team like Duke loses their respective conference tournament, can they still get picked in the tournament, and does the overall winner of the bracket become national champions? (even if they lost their conference tournament).

Can someone explain to me how the NCAA tournment works, I thought there was a bracket of 32 teams, but I'm sure I heard them say 60 odd the other day.

There are a total of 68 teams iirc. 8 teams play each other with the winners going on to the 'final' 64. That 64 is then divided into the four regions midwest, east, west and south, so 16 teams per region. Teams are seeds by region 1-16 then 1plays 16 etc. Its then just a simple knockout tournament to give us the final 4, one from each region.

If a team like Duke loses their respective conference tournament, can they still get picked in the tournament, and does the overall winner of the bracket become national champions? (even if they lost their conference tournament).

Yes they will still be in the tournament. The winner of each conf championship gets an automatic entry to the 'big dance' which is helpful for alot of the lower ranked teams and teams from less rated conferences. and yes the winner of the tourney is the national champion.

Lasty, who decides the seeds and who goes to the 'big dance'?

There is a committee of I think its ten conference commissioners and various schools athletics directors. They decide based on strength of schedule/rpi etc